A Different Sort of Magic
by Hirondelle
Summary: A young alchemist, Lorna, goes to Hogwarts, makes enemies with the Potter Posse and friends with Snape, Draco, etc. Ultimate goal is to stop an older student from finding the book Redskin, which would certainly lead to nasty problems if he succeeded.
1. Chapter 1

Lorna looked through the stacks of books, keeping an eye on Rhys. He was two years her senior, and the only one she was acquainted with who knew the directions and the means to Diagon Alley. At last she found the final book required for her new education and added it to her large stack. Tens of other kids were in various stages of the same process, some paying in their magical funny money, others just starting to figure out what was where. Lorna hefted up her books with a grunt and lumbered them over to the store clerk.

"That will be three Galleons and twelve Sickles. My, aren't you the thrifty one, finding everything on discount."

Lorna set the books on the table and rummaged through her pockets. Sickles? She only heard of the threshing sort before she got the letter, before she met Rhys while she wandered through London trying to figure out where the Alley even was. Oddly enough, he turned out to be her neighbor two doors down. Lorna still didn't have any money, but figured on her way over she might try to make do with what she had.

"Are pounds okay? I don't know the exchange rate…" Lorna admitted. Her cheeks burned. A line formed behind her and the people standing in it grew impatient and sore.

"Sorry miss, we don't accept muggle currency."

Lorna rummaged some more, "Are these okay?" Lorna dropped a fistful of gems on the counter. The clerk's eyes grew wide, and people leaned and twisted to see what was going on. They gasped, one after the other. Diamonds, star sapphires, and rubies of handsome size glittered on the wood.

"…Miss, I can set your books aside. There's a jeweler nearby, Ereanora. She runs the Gilded Chalice. She'll buy those at a fair price, and then you can come back. Myself, I do not want to overcharge."

The bookstore owner shuffled Lorna's books to the side and gave her a nod. Lorna re-pocketed her gems turned around, her head lowered. She knew that the world stared at her, and she did not want to turn redder. She dashed out of line and sought out Rhys, who was skimming a volume bound in snakeskin.

"Rhys, can you come with me for a bit?"

"But you don't have your books…"

"I need a jeweler so I can get my books."

Rhys rolled his eyes. "If you needed money, I could loan you some."

"I have more than enough in my pockets; I just need to change it into something usable."

Lorna grabbed Rhys by the sleeve of his robe and dragged him out of the store.

In truth, Lorna never imagined that the handful of gems in her pocket could succeed so well. The first witch in a long line of normal "muggles", as these people called non-wizarding folk, she had no idea if the baubles would even be worth anything. Even better, she had no need to raid any private treasure trove for her gems. She made them herself, with nothing needed but a decent amount of aluminum foil, some charcoal, and scrap stainless steel. Since she was little, Lorna had known that she could change items from one form to another, and before then her father had told her than every Whitfield had the same talents, all because of a certain ancestor who meddled with magic and science. She had hummed the story to herself like a mantra as she shifted the carbon in the charcoal to form diamonds and mixed the air and aluminum with the chrome of the stainless steel to form the rubies and sapphires. The only problem was that each time she went through the story, she wondered why, if scores of Whitfields could change pencils to diamonds, even if they couldn't turn lead into gold, not one save her had ever been to accepted to Hogwarts or its affiliates.

"Left here. Other left! It's straight ahead." Rhys hissed. Lorna could understand why. He, a third year student, was stooping rather low to be helping a first year distinguish right from left.

At last, though, Lorna could see the chalice etched in the sign above one ancient but well-decorated shop. Necklaces and rings, presumably enchanted, littered a velvet display case, each with a price tag delicately attached. Lorna admired the tags, each price and description handwritten in brown ink. She was used to grocery store prices printed on stickers. Lorna grabbed the brass door handle steadily, looking over her shoulder to beseech Rhys' support.

"I'm not going with you. I won't be seen dead in a necklace shop." Rhys shrugged, lifting the dusty edge of his black cloak off of the cobble stones. He didn't need to don a cloak for now, but it seemed more a fashion statement than anything else.

Lorna faced the solid oak door and opened it, stepping into the shop.

Author's note: Well, that's chapter one. Don't worry, more canon characters will show up soon enough.


	2. Chapter 2

On the inside, the shop was filled with the golden glow of candles matching every description and state of use. The yellow flames burgeoned among their stems of wax, lighting the chains and fine gilt relief with warm glow. Lorna looked around, trying to find the proprietor. She was no where to be seen, though a fox looked at her expectantly from the pages of an open book on the counter. Lorna smiled at the creature and walked forward, careful not to tip over the more intricate displays in the center of the store. She felt tacky, still wearing her jeans and navy shirt when everything around her sparkled like little stars or coals. She half expected a guard to kick her out. Lorna took two more steps and turned around. She saw no one, and heard nothing. Perhaps no one was here. Perhaps she was an unwitting trespasser.

"Perhaps you are in need of some help?" The fox asked, eyes glittering like onyx.

"Uh… erm, yes." Lorna swallowed hard. She was talking to a fox that had spoken to her. Her mind wrestled with the laws of nature as she knew them as she slowly reminded herself that in this world, perhaps nature's doctrines were entirely different.

Before Lorna's eyes, the fox lifted its front paws off the book and stood up, only to be enveloped in a smoky cloud that oozed to the ground. The smoke reached up to a height of over five feet and dissipated, revealing a slender, ageless woman. He sparkling black eyes and tightly plaited hair were beautiful against her white gown. Lorna's heart fluttered at the sight of such an unearthly beauty. Lorna shoved her hand back into her pocket and fished for her baubles, but her eyes never left the lady.

"Ereanora's Gilded Chalice. The only place for the mundane and magical world of jewelry. What can I interest you in?"

"I'm, uh, selling." Lorna formed an iron grip around her gems and threaded through the displays to the counter. She set the jewels on the counter. Hope bickered with pessimism over whether her trove would be worthy of wizarding coinage. "I didn't have any money to buy things at the book store, so he said I should go to you and exchange my gems for money."

Lorna clasped her hands together, nervous. Ereanora did say mundane, but would she still accept homemade gems? Lorna watched the lady pull out a loupe and hold a diamond up to the light. She examined it for a few seconds and moved onto the next jewel. Not once through the entire handful did she give a sign of interest or disgust. At last she put the final jewel back among its kin.

"Where did you acquire these? They're flawless." she did not sound amazed at all, nor suspicious

"I made them at home."

"Dearie, tell the truth. You are too young to be playing around with magic like that, and I don't think you have all that huge muggle equipment either."

"I made them at home." Lorna protested. "Are they worth anything?"

"Hmmm. I would say that eleven hundred Galleons would pass muster, but I do not have that much with me at the moment. Would you care for nine hundred Galleons and your choice of amulet?"

"I guess. Would nine hundred Galleons get me enough supplies for this year?"

"Are you really that dense about money?" The question slammed into Lorna

"Well, I am the first witch out of a family of 'muggles' as you call them. I didn't even know all this existed until I got the letter in the mail. And then I didn't know how to get here or where to get any money, so I think you can excuse me for not knowing. I can barely tell a Knut from a yuan as it is, much less how much one will buy."

Ereanora leaned over on the counter, rolling one of Lorna's sapphires beneath her index finger. She had such beautiful fingers, but they seemed too dreamy to handle a lot of stress. Her black eyes blinked before she calmly explained, "Twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. Just like pence and shillings and pounds, but different numbers. For the prices, trust the shopkeepers. They're mostly honest if you stay away from anywhere shady. But here, let me give you money for your jewels."

Lorna waited while Ereanora pulled out a large satin bag and her wand of polished yew. She muttered a quick spell and nine hundred of her Galleons zipped into the awaiting maw of the bag. Lorne watched, her ten-year-old eyes wide in amazing. Transforming into an animal was something beyond her scope for now, but moving things with a word, that was within her grasp. It seemed much more useful too. Maybe there was more to magic than frivolousness.

"Here's your money. If I may make a recommendation for the amulets- don't pick anything too gaudy or extravagant. A student has no need for hypnosis or invisibility. Myself, I prefer a small luck charm. Nothing too strong, though. Yes, luck, and a small protection charm. That would take sting off some of the offensive spells."

Lorna nodded and carefully looked through the back of the room, searching for something that matched Ereanora's description. She found one she liked, a pendant set with a tanzanite so deep it was amaranth in color on an orichalcum chain. It looked royal, the combination of deep purple and rosy brass colors. It even had the proper charms already in place, a weak luck and a weak protection spell. Lorna waved Ereanora over and pointed to her prize, secure behind its locked case. Ereanora opened the case and pulled the necklace out, then fastened it around Lorna's neck with an approving hum.

"Thank you so much, ma'am." Lorna bade farewell and threaded her way out of the shop.


	3. Chapter 3

When she left the store, the sky was still a pearly grey and Rhys had an irrepressibly bored expression on his face.

"Actually, I finished all my shopping while you were in there." Rhys said, "Let's go."

Lorna picked her books back up at the book store, then proceeded with Rhys to buy new robes and other supplies. She declined a visit to a shop that sold the needed crystal or glass phials. She had her own set of Pyrex ones at home, and she figured that they should suffice. The cauldron, however, she wavered on and finally decided to purchase. She didn't know if the potions she would make would depend on contamination from the pewter or not. At last, the only thing that remained was a wand and an animal.

Rhys showed Lorna to the wand shop first. Needless to say, this shop was also filled with kids her age and older, but also some adults too. A wizened man Rhys identified as Mr. Ollivander was at the fore of the line, handing a slender box to a chubby boy with a mass of curly blond hair. The line moved forward in spasms. For some of the people, they received their wands quickly. Others needed several tries before they walked away a few Galleons lighter but one piece of wood heavier. Lorna periodically overheard scattered words from the shopkeeper, mainly woods and impossible artifacts, ranging from unicorn hairs to phoenix tails and yew to willow. Lorna vaguely wanted an oak wand, as she remembered her mother's poem, "Fairy folks are in old oaks." Then again, she knew little of magic. Perhaps oak would make a lousy wand for her.

"Hiya. Wot's yer name?" A girl Lorna's age asked. Lorna turned around in line to meet her greeter. She had her black hair in high pigtails, giving an even more girlish look than her overalls already endowed. The girl smiled broadly while a white rat skittered over her shoulders.

"I'm Lorna. You?"

"I'm Gillian. You kin call me Jill."

"Is that your rat?"

"Yup. I got her today. Named her Rodie."

"So is this your last stop? You seem to have everything you need."

"Yup. Second and last. Me Ma gave me all her old books. You still need a familiar?"

"Uh-huh. I don't know what to get though. I see a lot of owls though."

"Oh, sure. Lot's o' people get owls. They do mail and stuff. I think they're too difficult though, pellets an' all. If I didn't see Rodie lookin' all cute I'd have gotten a cat."

Lorna took everything in. She needed all the advice she could get. She watched as Rhys slipped out of line, but didn't care too much. Now she had a friend her own age, and she already knew where she wanted to look for a familiar. Lorna continued talking to Jill until the line in front of her dwindled to two, then one, and then zero people. The aged store owner came up to her and led her to the midst of a stack of wands, each in open boxes. She had seen some of them been handled and rejected before.

Mr. Ollivander scanned Lorna, trying to judge what would be a best fit.

"Right or left handed?"

"Left."

"Try this," Ollivander commanded, thrusting a wand into her left hand, "Eleven inch yew."

Lorna stood dumbly.

"Wave it around."

Lorna did so, and the wand spat out red sparks for a brief instant before it began to smoke and burn in Lorna's and. She yelped, as did most everyone who saw the wand. Ollivander pulled out his own wand and muttered a quick spell, extinguishing the flames before they consumed more of the wand and the floor as well. Lorna broke out into a cold sweat. First she tries to pay with jewels, and then a wand explodes in her hands. Did her pendant not work? Did Ereanora gyp her? Lorna bit her tongue again.

Ollivander put away his wand, visibly shaken. "You shorted my wand…"

"I what?" Before Lorna could even wait for a reply, Ollivander was off again, looking for a new wand.

Seated on his spindly stool, Ollivander skyrocketed to the top of the stack of wand boxed and pulled out a crumpled box. He removed the wand within and handed it to Lorna. She could not help but notice that where his fingers wiped off the dust, the box turned from white to black. It was battered at the corners and sunken in the middle. The smell of oblivion clung to the box.

"Rowan, twelve inches, with dragon's heart strings. If this doesn't work, nothing will." Ollivander confided his last statement in hushed tones, so the crowd couldn't hear.

Lorna took the wand in her trembling hand. It felt warm to the touch, but maybe her hands were just hot from embarrassment. She could see a dozen pairs of eyes on her, waiting to see what would happen. Lorna gave the wand a purposeful swish. Viridian sparks trailed out of the rowan tip, disappearing before they came within a foot of the ground. Lorna felt a distinct feeling of mystery as watched the little stars flicker and fade, a feeling utterly different than alchemy. Alchemy left her feeling exhausted, like she had run a marathon. Magic felt somehow exhilarating and light like freefall.

Lorna's brown eyes looked at Ollivander for reassurance. He gave her a grin and a nod.

"Seventeen Galleons."

Lorna balked, "Seventeen? Everyone else was seven or less."

"You broke one expensive wand and purchased a second. Simple math."

Hardheartedly, Lorna opened her satin coin bag and fished out the golden coins, giving them to Mr. Ollivander. On her way out of the store, Lorna kept her eyes to the floor and the wand stuck up her shirt sleeve.


	4. Chapter 4

Lorna slipped into the pet stop as quickly as she could, never bothering to see if it sold the animal she wanted. It took her little time to see that the shop sold only owls. She read some advertisements beneath the more beautiful specimens.

"Excellent mail owl." Lorna read aloud. "Huh."

Lorna's father detested birds in general. He would sooner shoot an avian that ventured to fly towards him than see what the animal was up to. The only practical purpose of the owl would thus be defeated for Lorna.

Venturing out of the owl shop, Lorna quickly found her way to a more suitable store for her tastes. She scanned the aisles, looking at the warty toads of innumerable muddy shades, the sleek velvety rats, the cats that ranged anywhere from naked to cloudlet-esque. She was just about ready to fork over three galleons for a Norway rat when she saw an ermine nestled in the corner of its cage in the "Odd and Exotic" section. She fell in love with the creature at first sight. Everything about it, its lustrous brown fur and white belly, its little nose, called for her. Lorna paused. It could be a spell, this elation she felt. And the list made no mention of purchasing ermines. Desperate for the ermine, she argued against herself. The list made no made no mention of rats either, and people had those. Jill was proof of that, and she seemed to know more than Lorna. Nevertheless, she wrested herself from the animal when she saw the price tag. Two hundred Galleons. No animal could be worth that much and be practical. Eventually Lorna settled on a Russian Blue kitten. It drained her pocket more than a rat, but had already been trained. She left the store with her kitten in one arm and her other purchases in the other. The weight of the books dug painfully into her arm.

A whispering, pointing crowd blocked Lorna's way home, to her dismay. Lorna desperately needed a payphone so she could call her mother, ask her mother to pick her up. The people in front of her refused to move.

"It's him!"

"No way!"

"I never thought he'd be so handsome…"

"Well I see him every day at Hogwarts."

Lorna finally made it to the fore of the crowd. Even if she couldn't get out of the alley immediately, she could at least see who this person was. When she followed the extended index fingers to see who it was, she was only a bit surprised. They all pointed to a boy, older than her, with a black rat's nest on his head that concealed a funny scar. The boy managed to ignore the onlookers, but Lorna felt that he still acknowledged them on some level. He had a swagger to his step.

"Who is he?" Lorna asked an ash-blond youth next to her. Unlike most of the crowd, he held a different digit up.

"Harry Potter." The youth said with a sardonic tone of voice. "What are you, some stupid mudblood?"

"Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean."

"Half wizard stock, half muggle, you twit."

"My apologies." Lorna walked quickly past the rude youth, and out of Diagon Alley. She didn't half mind being in the presence of a supposedly famous stranger, but the rudeness of the towhead offended her.


	5. Chapter 5

Half an hour later, Lorna was in her mother's car, on the way home. Her mother peppered her with questions, which Lorna did her best to answer. After they parked, Lorna felt nothing but gratitude when her mother insisted on helping carry in the stack of books. Lorna smuggled her kitten under her shirt. No pets were allowed in the apartment she lived in. Other than the ban on pets, Lorna loved her apartment. She had a lovely view of the road from the third-floor windows, and the people were, in general, courteous.

After a brief elevator ride, Lorna and her mother reached the end of the hall and went into their apartment. Her family, neither rich nor poor, lived comfortably. Her mother made sure that plants lined every window and the refrigerator was always stocked, while her father helped Lorna with her homework when he wasn't poring over his chemistry textbooks or practicing alchemy. Currently her father sat on the couch watching the television, a plate of spaghetti on the coffee table in front of him. Though he stared intently at the screen, he turned around when Lorna walked in.

"How's my little witch doing?" He asked.

"Been better. I hope you can keep it a secret, but I needed a pet for school, I don't know why."

"Really? Lemme see."

Lorna put her robes down over a chair and untucked her shirt from her jeans, letting the kitten fall into her hands. She winced as its claws dug into her belly, but the pain wasn't that bad. The scratches were barely enough to draw blood, if even. The kitten quivered in her arms, purring.

"Cute. Is it a he or a she?"

"I think a he, or was a he anyway. The lady said that everything was taken care of."

"Do you have name?"

"Not yet… I'm thinking though."

"How about 'Spiegel'?"

"As in 'Spike'?" Lorna asked, thinking of a show her sister liked.

"As in the German 'mirror'. Also a cat in a story I was rather fond of."

Lorna suppressed a groan. He was one of the few Whitfields not to go into science. He found his passion in language and literature, teaching classes at the local high school. Nearly every clever name or quote he thought of was spawned of a novel or poem he read. Her father studied chemistry only as a hobby, albeit more seriously than most. Her mother, on the other hand, taught math. Between the two, Lorna learned more than she ever had time to cover in school.

"Go with Spiegel, Lor. I like it." Lorna's mother advised. Already she had brought out a spare tub and basket. She had piled an old rag of a blanket in the basket and was filling up the tub with sand in lieu of kitty litter.

"Mammu, I can do all of that myself. I am ten, you know."

"Well," her mother retorted, putting her hands on her wide hips in mock protest, "I want my baby to be comfortable. Come September I won't see her at all."

Lorna groaned and picked up the lined basket off of the counter, balancing Spiegel in her free arm.

"Thanks, then. I'm putting Spiegel in my room. I guess I'll read after that."

Lorna walked down the short hall to her room. She put the basket in a corner near her bed and placed Spiegel gently in the soft folds. She petted the kitten softly from head to tail, scratching Spiegel under his chin when he rolled over on his back. She didn't know if Spiegel really liked that or not, but assumed he did from the throaty purrs. When Lorna tired of pleasing the kitten, she stood back up and returned to the living room, though only to pick up her books.

She returned to her room to find Spiegel out of his basket and exploring. Lorna smiled, pleased to see her new pet accept his home so readily. Lorna plopped her books down at the foot of her bed and picked up the topmost. She threw herself onto the bed and flipped the book open to the first page. She heard Spiegel miaow and interrupted her reading to pull him up by her side. Spiegel curled up against her side while Lorna continued reading.

Hours passed quickly, but Lorna didn't notice as the sun fell behind the trees and the hall lights went out. Caught up in her stack of books, she didn't even remember that she skipped dinner. Granted, she passed by some books quickly. A _History of Magic _was nothing but bland and roundabout, its details inconsequential and style vapid. Not even the more inspired passages gripped Lorna, and she set down the book and picked up _1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi._ Again, nothing held Lorna's interest long except the detailed pictures, which Lorna skimmed until she finished the volume. Finally, her hands rested on _Magical Drafts and Potions_. Spurred on by her already rather intimate understanding of chemistry, she devoured every paragraph, learning what mixes created cool effects and intriguing trivia. Lorna read late into the night until she fell asleep, her head nestled between leaves of parchment.


End file.
